NAME

Net::Jabber::Data - Jabber Data Library

SYNOPSIS

Net::Jabber::Data is a companion to the Net::Jabber::XDB module. It
provides the user a simple interface to set and retrieve all
parts of a Jabber XDB Data.

DESCRIPTION

Net::Jabber::Data differs from the other modules in that its behavior
and available functions are based off of the XML namespace that is
set in it.  The current list of supported namespaces is:

  jabber:iq:auth
  jabber:iq:auth:0k
  jabber:iq:register
  jabber:iq:roster

For more information on what these namespaces are for, visit 
http://www.jabber.org and browse the Jabber Programmers Guide.

Each of these namespaces provide Net::Jabber::Data with the functions
to access the data.  By using the AUTOLOAD function the functions for
each namespace is used when that namespace is active.

To access a Data object you must create an XDB object and use the
access functions there to get to the Data.  To initialize the XDB with
a Jabber <xdb/> you must pass it the XML::Stream hash from the
Net::Jabber::Client module.

  my $xdb = new Net::Jabber::XDB(%hash);

There has been a change from the old way of handling the callbacks.
You no longer have to do the above yourself, a Net::Jabber::XDB
object is passed to the callback function for the message.  Also,
the first argument to the callback functions is the session ID from
XML::Streams.  There are some cases where you might want this
information, like if you created a Client that connects to two servers
at once, or for writing a mini server.

  use Net::Jabber qw(Client);

  sub xdbCB {
    my ($sid,$XDB) = @_;
    my $data = $XDB->GetData();
    .
    .
    .
  }

You now have access to all of the retrieval functions available for
that namespace.

To create a new xdb to send to the server:

  use Net::Jabber;

  my $xdb = new Net::Jabber::XDB();
  $data = $xdb->NewData("jabber:iq:auth");

Now you can call the creation functions for the Data as defined in the
proper namespaces.  See below for the general <data/> functions, and
in each data module for those functions.

For more information about the array format being passed to the
CallBack please read the Net::Jabber::Client documentation.

METHODS

Retrieval functions

GetXMLNS() - returns a string with the namespace of the data that
             the <xdb/> contains.

             $xmlns  = $XDB->GetXMLNS();

GetData() - since the behavior of this module depends on the
             namespace, a Data object may contain Data objects.
             This helps to leverage code reuse by making children
             behave in the same manner.  More than likely this
             function will never be called.

             @data = GetData()

Creation functions

SetXMLNS(string) - sets the xmlns of the <data/> to the string.

                   $data->SetXMLNS("jabber:xdb:roster");

In an effort to make maintaining this document easier, I am not going to go into full detail on each of these functions. Rather I will present the functions in a list with a type in the first column to show what they return, or take as arugments. Here is the list of types I will use:

string  - just a string
array   - array of strings
flag    - this means that the specified child exists in the
          XML <child/> and acts like a flag.  get will return
          0 or 1.
JID     - either a string or Net::Jabber::JID object.
objects - creates new objects, or returns an array of
          objects.
special - this is a special case kind of function.  Usually
          just by calling Set() with no arguments it will
          default the value to a special value, like OS or time.
          Sometimes it will modify the value you set, like
          in jabber:xdb:version SetVersion() the function
          adds on the Net::Jabber version to the string
          just for advertisement purposes. =)
master  - this desribes a function that behaves like the
          SetMessage() function in Net::Jabber::Message.
          It takes a hash and sets all of the values defined,
          and the Set returns a hash with the values that
          are defined in the object.

jabber:iq:

Type     Get               Set               Defined
=======  ================  ================  ==================

jabber:iq:

Type     Get               Set               Defined
=======  ================  ================  ==================

jabber:iq:

Type     Get               Set               Defined
=======  ================  ================  ==================

jabber:iq:

Type     Get               Set               Defined
=======  ================  ================  ==================

jabber:iq:

Type     Get               Set               Defined
=======  ================  ================  ==================

CUSTOM NAMESPACES

Part of the flexability of this module is that you can define your own
namespace.  For more information on this topic, please read the
Net::Jabber::Namespaces man page.

AUTHOR

By Ryan Eatmon in May of 2001 for http://jabber.org..

COPYRIGHT

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.